Wheeled carts are used ubiquitously around the world and have been used for centuries for innumerable purposes. As would be expected, there as many different designs for wheeled carts as there are uses for them. There are carts for home use, farm use, for use by contractors, powered carts, hand carts, and carts for pulling by draught animals and many, many others. Most carts have 2 wheels, sometimes more, and have some type of interface for the person or animal or engine that is powering it. The vast majority of carts have their two wheels axially aligned at opposite lateral sides of the cart. Still other types of carts have their two wheels aligned one in front of the other.
Regardless of the design and function of a cart, the basic idea is that the cart is used to transport a load. This basic idea is embodied in thousands of ways around the world.
Focusing on one general type of cart, a common cart used by outdoorsmen is aptly named a “game cart.” Hunters and other outdoorsmen us a game cart to haul loads in a variety of outdoor conditions. Sometimes game carts are used to haul game out of the woods. Sometimes the carts serve double duty and are used to haul camping equipment into the woods to a hunting camp. Hauling game out of the woods can be heavy work; a quartered elk can weigh upwards of 100 lbs. Even with a cart, hauling an elk out of the woods to a location where a vehicle can reach the hunter can be a difficult task and it can take several loads to finish the job. But without a cart the job can be backbreaking. It will be appreciated that to be useful, a game cart must be suited for transport over rough and uneven ground, hills, streams and all kinds of obstacles. As such, a variety of carts have been developed specifically for use as game carts.
But despite the many types of carts available on the market, there is a need for highly functional designs that make the job of hauling loads over rough, uneven ground easier. For example, many hunters have found that good hunting grounds may be accessed by bicycle, for example, mountain bicycles. It would be advantageous to use a wheeled cart that is suited to use in rough terrain and which may be towed by a bicycle.
The present invention comprises a cart that is especially adapted for use as a game cart, although it is not limited to such use. The cart may be easily towed by a conventional mountain bike and is strong and light weight enough to allow use on a variety of difficult terrain. The cart has two wheels, each typically defined by a pneumatic tire such as a mountain bike tire. There are two interchangeable wheel positions. In the first wheel position the wheels are axially aligned at opposite lateral sides of the cart. That is, the wheels are mounted to the frame in a side-by-side orientation with the axle of one wheel substantially axially aligned with the axle of the other wheel. This is the wheel placement that might be used, for example, when the cart is being towed behind a bike. In this position the center of mass of a load carried on the bed of the cart is relatively low. In the second wheel position the wheels are aligned one in front of the other along the direction of travel as the cart is moved, in a front-to-back orientation. In this position the axle of the forward wheel defines an axis that is parallel to and spaced apart forward of the axle of the rearward wheel. This is the wheel placement that might be used when the cart is disconnected from a bike and is being used to haul a load—game—out of the woods. In this position, the bed of the cart is raised to a relatively higher position than the position of the bed when the wheels are in the first wheel position. As such, when the wheels are in the second wheel position the center of mass of a load carried on the bed is relatively higher than when the wheels are in the first wheel position. This makes it much easier for the user to move the cart over obstacles such as those that could be expected when hauling game out of the woods, for example, over down trees, across steep side hills, etc.
The cart of the present invention incorporates quick change structures that allow the wheel positions to be changed quickly and easily without detaching the wheel attachment members—the forks—from the cart frame. The cart incorporates handles and legs that may be used in various configurations as detailed below.